The K2B Show

ABOUT KENNY KENNY BERGLE

Starting his audio career like so many musical prodigies -
by banging pots on the kitchen floor as a three-year-old, Bergle was
experimenting with electronics in elementary school, pulling apart old
transistor radios and amazing his chagrined parents by re-assembling
them to working order. Violin was his main instrument till 8th grade,
and he was a competitive diver throughout school, diving for
University of Texas in NCAA competition and winning many gold medals.
Debating at the national level through high school and utilizing
discipline and organizational skills (garnered from both diving and
debate) Bergle excelled in college for 4 years in pre-law at Univ. of
Texas, Austin from 1974-1978.

Exploring classical and jazz harp at UT, he then transferred to
the Univ. of North Texas, a world-reknown jazz education center,
and from 1979-1984 studied jazz composition, jazz education and jazz guitar,
as he changed his university academic focus from the legal world to the arts world.

Bergle started his own recording and composition studio, KCB Studios, in 1979 and
formed KCBSystems, an audio/MIDI consulting firm in 1985. In the early days of
KCB Systems, Bergle was hired to design, implement and train on audio
and MIDI compositional and performance systems for both the stage and
the studio for many national and international artists, including BB
King, Grateful Dead, KISS, Ornette Coleman, Mickey Newbury, Seals and
Crofts, RunDMC, Grandmaster Flash, and many others. (Bergle has the unique claim to
have turned both RunDMC and Grandmaster Flash on to MIDI drum machines,
and the rest is rap history!)

During the early 1980s at UNT, Bergle spent his summers in the
Mississippi Delta area of the Gulf Coast and in Cook’s Inlet
in Alaska as a Field Engineer for a seismic firm, looking for oil for Texaco,
Conoco, Exxon, (and map surveying for the USGS). There Bergle got
valuable education and experience in high-level digital electronics
and radio telemetry as well as more organizational skill as the Party
Manager (leader), simultaneously, of two 40-man seismic crews in Alaska.

Serendipitously, digital technology used in the seismic industry then (’80-’82)
showed up as digital audio technology a few years later. Bergle was trained on
how to design and apply 64-track digital recording systems in the field
10 years before the audio world went digital.

KCB Systems Studio started gaining notoriety and success composing and
recording spots (jingles and commercials) for, among others, Pepsi,
KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, BurgerKing, Taco Cabana, Disney, Del Taco, and
others including many ad agencies.

Another interesting KCB product/service were museum sound
installations for traveling exhibits, including walkthrough music for
the 3-city stop of the jewels of a famous ancient Egyptian king.
Album projects abound during this time as well as KCB Systems consulting on
corporate in-house studios and commercial studio start ups.

For 5 years Bergle was the Technical Director at The Caravan of Dreams
Performing Arts Center in Ft. Worth, TX. There he supervised the five
sound and light crews that ran the five different in-house venues as
well as managed the (2) 24-track recording studios therein. Working
with most all the jazz greats of the period (and other genres too!),
Bergle managed/produced the following stars’ live
albums/cds recorded at Caravan of Dreams;
Dizzy Gillespie, Ornette Coleman, Joe Zawinul, Dr. John, Charlie
Peacock, Pharoah Sanders, Michael Brecker, Najee, Margaret Becker,
Ladysmith Black Mambazzo, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Dave Koz,
Rodney Crowell, Eartha Kitt, Michael Card, Dixie Chicks, Johnny Gimble, Edie Brickell,
Stephan Grappelli, Kirk Whalum, NRBQ, Acoustic Alchemy,
Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Stanley Turrentine, Phil Woods,
and many many more, in no particular order.

While in Ft. Worth, Bergle also served as the Creative Director for
several years of the summer fest there – the Main Street Festival -
where he was hired to enlighten the 2-week event designing special effects, lasers,
electronic light sculptures and interactive video towers.

Since joining Sweetwater in 1993, Bergle has again emerged on the
national scene as one of THE audio/recording experts in the field.
Sweetwater also leverages Bergle’s talent and continue to market his
stature in the industry. Currently Bergle
hosts instructional/demo videos and interviews online at
Sweetwater.com and emcees most of Sweetwater’s Workshops.
He was asked to speak at in Washington, D.C.
at the 2009 national conference of MENC
(Music Educators National Conference) as a featured technologist.

Broadway shows enlist him constantly to provide advice and gear for
the orchestra pit. Some of the shows using Bergle are: Spamalot,
Phantom of the Opera, Avenue Q, Chicago, The Producers, Dracula, Light
in the Piazza, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Lion King, Phantom, Annie,
Victor Victoria, We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia!,
The Pajama Game, Hairspray, Spelling Bee,
The Color Purple, White Christmas and on and on…

Musical artist clients who have depended on him for their audio and
studio design and equipment needs include: John Fogerty, Pete
Townshend, Oscar Peterson, Late Night with David Letterman (Paul
Shaffer), Kenny Rogers, Matchbox20. Ron Artest, Collective Soul, Dope,
Garbage, Robbie Krieger, Depeche Mode, Josef Zawinul and many more.
Businesses and institutions that use Bergle include -
Hilary Clinton and the US Dept. of State, IBM,Carnegie Hall,
Microsoft, Cleveland Indians, SeaWorld, Kennedy Center
for the Arts, Busch Gardens, DisneyWorld, Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation, Lincoln Center, Discovery Channel, CBS, ABC, NBC, Turner
Broadcast, PBS, NPR, Corp. for Public Broadcasting and many others.

Bergle has consulted for Universities across the nation including:
Indiana Univ., Yale, Univ. of Michigan, Univ. of Texas at Austin, UT
at Arlington, UT at San Antonio, UT at El Paso, M.I.T., Univ. of
Miami, Washington State Univ., Ohio Univ., Univ. of N. Carolina, Univ.
of Nebraska, Penn State, Bowling Green State Univ. (Ohio), Texas
Christian Univ., Western Illinois University, and many others.
Typical consultation involves planning curricullum,
designing audio and MIDI labs (also providing that gear),
and degree program consultation and development.

KCB Systems believes in the benefits of local community service and
supports the arts in many ways. Bergle does volunteer work
for PBS39, IPFW, FW Museum of Art, Embassy
Theater, Arts United Center, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne
City Council, Junior Achievement, Three Rivers
Festival, USF, among others.

A Senior Sales Engineer at Sweetwater, Bergle also teaches sales
classes and sales labs there. Developing the curriculum for the three
concentrations in the current Bachelor of Science in Music Technology
program at the University of Saint Francis, he teaches music, audio,
and music technology at several universities in the area.

Here’s the full article that was featured in ProSoundNews on Kenny Kenny Bergle,
reprinted by permission -